Sharp to Raise 137 Billion Yen Selling Shares at Discount

By Grace Huang -
Oct 8, 2013

Sharp Corp. (6753), a supplier of screens to
Apple Inc., will raise as much as 137 billion yen ($1.4 billion)
selling stock at a discount as the Japanese company seeks to
rebuild its balance sheet after record annual losses.

The shares will be priced at 279 yen apiece, which is 4.1
percent lower than yesterday’s closing price, for the public
offering and stock sales to Makita Corp. (6586), Denso Corp. (6902) and Lixil
Group Corp. (5938), Osaka-based Sharp said in a regulatory filing. The
total amount is about 18 percent less than the company said it
was targeting last month amid a slump in its share price.

Sharp posted losses totaling 921 billion yen during the
past two financial years amid intensified competition in LCDs
and flat-panel TVs. The supplier for Apple’s iPhone and iPad is
tapping into the Japanese equities rally after previously
selling stakes to Samsung Electronics Co. and Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM)

Sharp fell 0.3 percent to 290 yen as of the close of trade
in Tokyo. The stock has fallen 4.3 percent so far this year,
while Japan’s benchmark Topix index has gained 34 percent.

The stock has dropped 23 percent since the company said
Sept. 18 it would raise as much as 166.4 billion yen from the
sale of stock.

Sharp is planning to raise as much as 119.1 billion yen
from the public share sale and 17.4 billion yen from Makita,
Denso and Lixil, it said in the filing.

In August, Sharp reported a net loss of 18 billion yen for
the June quarter, narrower than the 138 billion-yen loss a year
earlier. Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold
and administrative expenses, totaled 3 billion yen for the
quarter, compared with a loss of 94 billion yen a year earlier,
the company said. Sales rose 33 percent to 608 billion yen.

The maker of Aquos TVs is forecasting net income of 5
billion yen for the year to March 2014, its first annual profit
in three years, after job cuts. The company sold a stake in its
largest LCD plant to Taiwanese billionaire Terry Gou last year
to boost sales through his Foxconn Technology Group, the world’s
biggest contract manufacturer of electronics.